1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical disk drive assembly, more particularly to an optical disk drive assembly having a control panel mounted movably thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that notebook personal computers (PC) are equipped with optical disk drives, such as compact disk read-only-memory (CD-ROM) and digital versatile disk read-only-memory (DVD-ROM), for listening to music and watching video programs. However, the control keys for manipulation of the optical disk drives are liable to be depressed unintentionally when the optical disk drives are in use, thereby resulting in misoperation of the optical disk drives. In addition, the control keys of the optical drive disks occupy precious space on the keyboards of notebook PCs when the optical disk drives are not in use.
The object of the present invention is to provide an optical disk drive assembly in which the control keys for manipulation of an optical disk drive of the optical disk drive assembly will not be depressed unintentionally when the optical disk drive assembly is in use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an optical disk drive assembly that will not occupy space on the keyboard of a notebook PC.
According to the present invention, the optical disk drive assembly comprises a hollow housing, an optical disk drive, and a control panel. The hollow housing has a bottom wall, and a front opening formed at a front end of the bottom wall. The optical disk drive is mounted inside the hollow housing and is disposed rearwardly of the front end of the bottom wall. The control panel is movably disposed forwardly of the optical disk drive at the front end of the bottom wall. The control panel has a plurality of control keys disposed on a side face thereof. The control keys are connected electrically to the optical disk drive for manipulation of the optical disk drive. The control panel is mounted pivotally inside the hollow housing about a pivot axis that extends in a lateral direction substantially transverse to a front-to-rear direction of the hollow housing to turn between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the side face of the control panel faces rearwardly of the hollow housing to conceal the control keys inside the hollow housing. In the second position, the side face of the control panel faces upwardly of the hollow housing to expose the control keys at the front opening.
In the preferred embodiment, the hollow housing further has two opposite side walls extending upward from two opposite sides of the bottom wall and extending rearwardly from the front end of the bottom wall. Each of the opposite side walls has a front portion adjacent to the front end of the bottom wall, and a pivot hole formed in the front portion thereof. The control panel is elongated in a direction parallel to the lateral direction. The control panel has two pivot axles extending longitudinally and outwardly from two opposite ends thereof and extending coaxially with the pivot axis. The pivot axles are inserted into the pivot holes in the side walls in order to connect pivotally the control panel to the hollow housing between the opposite side walls.
Preferably, the optical disk drive assembly further comprises a positioning device for positioning the control panel in the first position.